Sometimes we think we have to change governments and corporations in order to see environmental change, but change is just as powerful when it happens one person at a time. And sometimes it’s easier to do.
About a month ago, I made two posts about the environmental efforts of SunChips, a snack food company. I had become excited when I discovered, quite by accident, that one of my favorite chips was packaged by a company with a deep environmental commitment. It’s always nice when you discover something that you love anyway has a secondary environmental benefit. Makes me feel better about eating junk food.
Yesterday, I ran into a guy who was eating a bag of them. I joked, “Hey, did you know that SunChips’ packaging is one-third compostable?”
He immediately perked up. “Really? I didn’t know that. Cool!”
Then he added thoughtfully. “I enjoy using the environment. But I don’t know much about saving it. I drive a diesel truck.”
Why not divert all that plastic from the waste stream entirely by turning those old bottles into something new? Here are ten plastic bottle craft ideas to get you going!
I just read that San Francisco, in another moment of environmental health leadership (brilliance, I would call it), just launched the most ambitious recycling program in the nation. For a city that already diverts 72 percent of its trash from landfills, San Francisco didn’t sit on its laurels. Mayor Gavin Newsom promoted the law that adds mandatory composting to the program and forwards the goal of achieving 75 percent diversion and zero waste by 2020.
Scientists have discovered a remarkable, unexpected and cheap way to store hydrogen fuel– using carbonized chicken feather fibers.
The problem of storing hydrogen as fuel has traditionally been a perplexing and expensive dilemma. For instance, a car with a 20-gallon hydrogen storage tank made from carbon nanotubes or metal hydrides– two of the best ideas so far– would add $5.5 million or $30k respectively to the price of that vehicle.
A storage tank made from carbonized chicken feathers, however, would only mark up the cost a measly $200. The green bio-material would also help solve the problem of how to dispose of the 2.7 billion kilograms of chicken feathers generated each year by commercial poultry operations.
Composting will prevent tons of material from going to the landfill, create healthy soil for our local farms and help us fight global warming.
Today at the Farmer’s Market in front of San Francisco’s iconic Ferry Building I am signing the nation’s first mandatory composting law. It’s the most comprehensive recycling and composting legislation in the country and the first to require residents and businesses to compost food scraps.
San Francisco created the “EcoFinder” iPhone App to help residents recycle and dispose of materials. The open data philosophy behind the app is Government 2.0 at work.
With the release today of San Francisco’s first iPhone app based on a City data feed, recycling just got much easier for our residents.
We will only reach these lofty goals together — with the help of all our residents. That’s why the City’s environment department (@SFEnvironment) has launched an iPhone version of the popular web-based EcoFinder tool.
Skins vs. shirts, Army vs. Navy, Spy vs. Spy: now you can add San Francisco vs. Food Scraps to the all-star list of classic matchups. Not satisfied with its stunning recycling rate of 70%, the city of the future is on its way to requiring all residential and commercial building owners to sign up for recycling and composting services, including food scrap composting. This move could boost the city’s recycling rate to 90%. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors just passed the ordinance on a first reading today, and it will go back for a second reading and final vote next week.
Refuse collection has been mandatory in San Francisco since the 1930s, so perhaps it came as no surprise when the nation’s leader in recycling passed a mandatory recycling and compost ordinance on June 9, but San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom still commended the Board of Supervisors for its passage of the ordinance.
Like a lot of crafters, Brooke grew up in a handmade household. Her mom even ran a crafty business in the 80’s selling handmade “hair poofs.” Mom’s craftiness didn’t stop there! She also made a lot of Brooke’s clothes, including “this crazy pair of poofy overalls” out of old curtains.
Now, Brooke makes clothes, accessories and housewares constructed out of repurposed materials, like vintage fabric and linens, for her own crafty business. She sees vintage and found materials as a way to avoid “contributing to the raw textile industries which aren’t always fair to their workers overseas.”
I’m also totally digging her clutches and pouches made from fused plastic bags that would have been headed for the trash bin. I couldn’t even tell that it was plastic at first glance!
Sometimes we think we have to change governments and corporations in order to see environmental change, but change is just as powerful when it happens one person at a time. And sometimes it’s easier to do. 
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